Trentonian editorial: A weed tax?

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

The rockers used to sing, “Don’t bogart that joint, my friend.” Gov. Christie’s singing another version these days: “Don’t bogart that joint, my friend — tax it instead!”

The Christie administration insists that under New Jersey’s medical marijuana law, medicinal weed is subject to the state’s 7 percent sales tax. The law, enacted in 2010 but still unimplemented, is silent on the issue of taxation.

You’d think that the author of the measure, Assemblyman Reed Gusciora — a smart fellow, an attorney, a veteran lawmaker who’s been witness to no end of statutory draftsmanship shenanigans and governmental revenue grabs — might have anticipated this oversight. But apparently not.

Medicines, even over-the-counter ones, are exempt from the sales tax. So it would be logical to suppose that medical marijuana would be too. But if you were a state Treasury Department revenuer under pressure to scrounge up every dime of taxation you could lay your hands on to shovel into the maw of the state government, you’d probably be inclined to say that logic’s irrelevant.

We’ve tended to view medical marijuana laws as surreptitious steps toward outright legalization, to suspect that the “medical” part comes with a wink and a nudge. Maybe Gov. Christie secretely thinks so too, since he seems determined to slap a sort of sin tax on it.

When it comes to dispensing marijuana on true medical grounds, the substance’s key component could be administered in other forms than a joint. This way, patients could receive a measured amount of the drug tailored to their individual circumstances. They also could avoid respiratory complications. Which makes us suspect there’s a legalization agenda here.

Decriminalization makes sense. But not legalization. Do we want to add potheads to the mix of alcohol-sloshed drivers on the road? Do we really want a minor-league drug program for some users — yes, not all, but certainly some — to prepare themselves for the cocaine and heroin majors?

Libertarians are selling marijuana legalization as a way to outfox the drug gangs and in the bargain make an easy windfall on licensing fees and other pot-taxing revenues. Some Republicans, always eager to avoid taxation, are joining them, as are some Democrats, equally eager to sign onto any cockamamie scheme for raising taxes.

Which gets around to our point that government licensing fees, taxation, and other bureaucratic overhead will always confer a competitive advantage on the drug gangs. The Christie administration helps make the point.